Lots of our readers have fond memories of a teacher who made a mark on their life. And many of them took the time to write down those reminiscences for us.
Each entry we received is a heartfelt expression of thanks to a dedicated teacher, and choosing just a few of them to share with our readers was a tough task. Here are some of the ways our readers remember their favorite teachers:
"I remember when I was in the first grade at the old Lincoln School in Brigham City. I was quite small compared to my classmates and my first-grade teacher, Mrs. Ella Long, was very tall. I felt especially safe with Mrs. Long, because she lived across the street from me and had been my friend as long as I could remember (which wasn't very long). I still have a chart printed in that great elementary school script on the special chart paper with the line down the middle of the writing space. It says, 'Good News — AnnaLee has a new baby brother. He has red hair.' She helped me chronicle a special miracle in my family since I was an adopted child and the birth of my brother was truly a miracle. To this day when I utter the words 'Good News,' my mind automatically kicks in the rest of the words on her poster, and I smile to myself as I remember being in her first-grade classroom and how special I felt.
"I, too, have been a teacher and work in the school system. I have a grandson who is in the first grade this year. I watched him skip across the crosswalk the other day with a big smile on his face and excited for his turn to learn to read and conquer the 'tricky bars.' I know his teacher will help him feel special, too; just like Mrs. Long did for me.
— AnnaLee Hansen, Centerville
"I remember feeling insecure after losing my father, a friend and both of my grandmothers to death within a few short years. My mother remarried when I was in the fifth grade, and it meant changing schools for the third time, adjusting to a different family situation and finding new friends.
"Mr. Witcherly was my sixth-grade teacher, and he made a great impression on my life because of his ability to make his students feel important. He lifted my self-esteem by selecting me to become the editor of the school newspaper. And he was generous with his praise. His kind and gentle ways reminded me of my father.
"I caught pneumonia that winter and missed some school while in the hospital, but with his encouragement, my grades stayed up, along with my spirits."
— Charlene Whitehead, Taylorsville
"I remember well my sixth-grade teacher at Magna Elementary, Miss (Georgia) Veater. She was full of enthusiasm. She was a best friend to me. I was teased because I was so thin, and she made me feel like I was beautiful and helped me accept the way I was and to tolerate others. She gave me a lot of self-confidence, putting me in as the third baseman on our girls softball team, even though I wasn't a very good player. She made a book of her students' writings, stories and poems and gave it to each of us on the last day of school. I cherish this book today, some 28 years later."
— Becky H. Ford, Fruit Heights
"I remember Edith Shaw, my sixth-grade teacher at Whittier Elementary School in Logan. It was Mrs. Shaw who first recognized that I needed glasses. Somehow I had slipped through five grades by sitting at the front of the room near the blackboard. Mrs. Shaw seated me at the back of the room where I couldn't see the blackboard. Not knowing my eyes were bad, I tried to bluff my way through. Mrs. Shaw quickly realized I needed glasses and sent word to my parents that I needed glasses. After seeing an eye doctor, a new world of crispness and clarity opened up to me because of Mrs. Shaw's perception of my need. I also remember her because she was the first teacher to tell me that I had a sense of humor and taught me how to find humor in life, something that I have always tried to do."
— Wm. James Mortimer, retired Deseret News publisher, Salt Lake City
"Of the many, many teachers I have had over the past 100 years, teachers in the grade school, high school, college, correspondence school and church-sponsored classes, I remember best Miss Amanda Pace, a tiny, rather pudgy spinster. She taught me in the fourth grade, 90 long years ago, at the Central School in Heber City.
"Miss Pace loved poetry, good poetry. Every once in a while she would skip the regular assignment and devote one whole class period to the recital, from memory, of what must have been a vast treasury of poems in her mind. Though I was but a child, I was enthralled, not only to miss a regular class period, but to listen to her recital of poems, and the spirit she put into her recital.
" 'Speak, speak, thou fearful guest, who with thy hollow chest, still in rude armor dressed, comest to haunt me . . .' This poem, 'The Skeleton in Armor' by Longfellow, if I remember right, was one of her favorites. She put such expression into her recital that we felt like we were right there, thrusting our hands into his bony sides.
"Not only did she love and memorize poetry, she expected us to love it and memorize it as she did, and, so far as I was concerned, she succeeded. I memorized perhaps a dozen or more poems. Many of them I can, and still do, repeat quite often. If I have trouble falling asleep, repeating in my mind a few poems, 'The Day is Done' or 'The Daffodils,' can calm my mind and induce sleep.
"Thanks, thanks to you, Amanda. I am sure you are long since dead, but the benefit of your patient teaching lives on and enriches my life."
— Perris S. Jensen, attorney, Sandy
"I remember my fourth-grade teacher, Mrs. Springer. She taught at Ivy Hall Academy. She had orange hair, black glasses and always had a smile on her face. She would always let us out early after school. She could do anything. But the best thing she did was Math Cooking. At least twice a week she would take us down to the school kitchen and teach us math by cooking. She knew every student by name."
— Jake Zufelt, student, Meridian School, Provo
"I am writing to nominate as an outstanding teacher the late Eldred Bergesen, who taught commercial law at Granite High School.
"We at Granite High School called ourselves the Granite Farmers. I was no exception. I came from a family that had been engaged in agricultural pursuits, and I was looking forward to continuing in that occupation. At Granite High, I took all the classes I could in agriculture. However, in my senior year, in order to fulfill a certain requirement for graduation, I took a class in commercial law from Mr. Bergesen.
"At that point, I did not know much about lawyers and what they did. Although Mr. Bergesen had not received any legal training, he had taught commercial law long enough to master the high school subject. He made the class very interesting and was able to illustrate the points of law he was teaching by examples that he would create. Not many subjects in high school got me excited, but this class really piqued my interest. Mr. Bergesen made the subject come alive, and I realized its application to everyday situations.
As largely the result of the instruction of this good teacher, I changed my plans and decided to pursue law as a career. Consequently, I entered the School of Law at the University of Utah, and after graduation, I practiced law for many years, later becoming a Supreme Court justice. On Dec. 31 of this year, I will retire as a justice, having been engaged as a lawyer or as a justice for 54 years."
— Utah Supreme Court Justice Richard C. Howe
"I remember my seventh-grade English and art teacher at Midvale Junior High school in 1985. Mrs. Sally Lester was dedicated to her students, especially to those who seemed to struggle in her classes.
"My English class was a trial in perseverance. I didn't enjoy reading, my spelling was atrocious and diagramming was next to impossible. In art class, however, Mrs. Lester recognized my artistic ability and used that avenue to cultivate my potential in English. My drawings and paintings often depicted pristine landscapes, historical settings or graphic designs and were always done in vibrant tones. Sensing that I had a vivid imagination and the ability to tell a story, she had me put my thoughts and feelings on paper as I drew or painted a picture. Then she encouraged me to write those feelings into stories that 'talked to her' and made her feel apart of them. She also stressed the importance of good penmanship. To foster an interest in reading, she directed me to books that related to the things I painted.
"Nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives and so on began to make sense. My spelling improved, as did my reading habits, and my grades. I went from being an F student to an A student, and I could not have done it without her dedication and encouragement."
— Karen C. Prisbrey, Gunnison
"I remember Mr. Don Davis, fifth-grade teacher at Hill View Elementary, as one of the most caring teachers I had. Mr. Davis was very strict, fun and cared deeply about seeing each student achieve their highest potential. Mr. Davis had a laugh that would echo through the hall. Yet, if you did something you knew was against the rules he would give you a stern lecture. I remember Mr. Davis playing ball with his students at recess and the daily math drills. Later, when I was in high school, I volunteered in his classroom for a semester. This is when I realized how much his students meant to him. He would share personal stories or concerns he had for each child. His heart truly belonged to teaching the children."
— Ruth R. Peters, Salt Lake City
"My favorite teacher's name was Mrs. McCasland. She was my third-grade teacher. She is my beloved teacher, since she took us on lots of field trips. She also was the only teacher who had pets. She was also one of the only teachers who loved to teach, that's why all her students liked her. She even sent her students postcards before the school year even started.
"How she taught geography was unique. When a student went on a trip she would give them a teddy bear to take with them. She would tell them to buy a souvenir for it. When they got back we would find where they visited and put a red sticker where they went."
— Erik Van Otten, student, Crescent View Middle School
"The teachers I remember are the ones who made me laugh. And the one who made me laugh the most was Mr. Larson. And that was strange, because Jordy Larson never even smiled. His style was complete deadpan. He would look you in the eye and in a nasal, monotone calmly explain that your best friend, your companion for life, the spiritual guide that would never let you down was to forever and always be your 'Self Aids' grammar book by L.J. O'Rourke. Don't believe a word of what others might say about not teaching religion in our public schools. Mr. Larson was the High Priest of Proper English and educational salvation was to be found through the scriptures revealed in the grammar book. And yes, there is a 1971 copy of 'Self Aids' on my desk at home right this very minute. Really.
"But perhaps Mr. Larson was more pioneer than priest. Within the halls of Box Elder High School in Brigham City, Mr. Larson tramped through the unexplored wastelands of our 16-year-old brains in search of fertile soil to plant his properly conjugated grains of truth.
"Or maybe it was the scientific approach he took to cleaning up the clutter he found. Had Einstein actually been in Mr. Larson's classroom when he last explained to Billy (one more time) why it was not proper to end a sentence with a preposition, he could have actually seen time slow to a crawl. I swear. I distinctly remember the clock on the wall did not move.
I have not set eyes on Jordy Larson since I was 17. But I remember him. I remember him making me laugh. I remember him making me learn. I remember him making me want to be the kind of teacher my students would someday remember. And smile."
— Lily Eskelsen, National Education Association secretary-treasurer, Washington, D.C.
"I remember my 1970-71 Skyline High School history teacher, Mr. Verl Workman, who taught me much more than history.
"I remember I worked long and hard on a term assignment and felt I had done quite good work. When I received back my final grade on the total of oral and written work and it was a disappointing B, I was livid to know why. I became especially anxious upon comparing my paper and research to that of several others in the class who had garnered higher grades with what I knew to be work inferior to mine.
"Upon pointing out this incongruity to Mr. Workman he calmly and definitively pointed out that the work of one such student was the best that she could do, so she deserved the A she had been given. Mr. Workman commented that my paper, while superior work by comparison, was not of the caliber of which I was capable.
"With much understanding, albeit very little time, Mr. Workman allowed me to rethink and rework my project, which ultimately earned me an A, but taught me more importantly, the significance and satisfaction of doing my best and reaching for my brightest star. Today, as a junior high school teacher, I remember Mr. Workman's desires for each of us to be our very best. I hope and pray I can instill those same ideals in my students."
— Kathleen O'Reilly Nutt, Pleasant Grove